AMAZON ARMY

One repercussion of the "Red Scare" following
World War I was the attempt by business
to reverse the gains made by labor during
the war. There followed a series of strikes
throughout the nation. In southeast Kansas
the coal miners of the United Mine Workers
(UMW), led by Alexander Howat, defied both
President Woodrow Wilson and the president
of the UMW, John L. Lewis, in a series of
strikes. When Kansas passed the Court of Industrial
Relations law to do away with strikes,
Howat called a strike to test the law. His imprisonment
resulted in the "Amazon Army."

On December 11, 1921, a mass meeting of
women in Franklin, Kansas, prompted 2,000
to 6,000 wives, daughters, mothers, sisters,
and sweethearts of striking miners to march in
the Kansas coalfields over the next several
days. The marchers included Annie Stovich,
Mary Skubitz, and her mother Julia Youvain.
Mrs. Ted Farrell, Mrs. Felix Azamber, Mrs.
William Howe, Mrs. J. R. Supple, Mrs. James
Marioth, Mrs. Paul Johnson, and Mrs. Julia
Chiararini signed the resolutions at Franklin.
The women's march sparked interest across
the state and nation. Although controversy exists
over whether any violence occurred during
the march (red pepper being the "weapon"
of choice), the state sent in the militia,
including cavalry and some machine-gun
units, and some arrests were made. The women's
march caused a stir but did not stop coal
production, and the strike ended on January
13, 1922.

Thomas R. Walther
Pittsburg State University

Schofield, Ann. "The Women's March: Miners, Family
and Community in Pittsburg, Kansas, 1921–1922." Kansas
History: A Journal of the Central Plains 7 (1984): 159–68.